Cleveland, Ohio, held a non-partisan primary for City Council on September 8. In ward 14, seven candidates competed. Coming in first was Brian Cummins, who is associated with the Green Party (although this is difficult to nail down objectively, because Ohio voter registration forms do not ask voters to choose a party). In second place was Rick Nagin, a member and leader of the Communist Party who writes for the party’s newspaper, the Peoples Weekly World. Nagin was endorsed by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Because neither received as much as 50%, the two will face off in a run-off on November 3.
Coming in third was the incumbent councilmember in the 14th district, Joe Santiago. The votes were: Cummins 539, Nagin 393, Santiago 265, and four other candidates received 222, 153, 27, and 20 votes. The 14th ward is 48% Hispanic. Cummins is already on the city council, but representing another district. The city recently redistricted itself and decreased the number of council districts from 21 to 19, so the old districts don’t really exist any more. Thanks to Green Party Watch for this news. Here is an article about Nagin, written shortly before the election.
Great article Richard.
not much difference most of the greens I know are watermellons anyway – green outside red inside
Democrats must not be greatly concerned with this race or they would have brought in national, or at least state, help. I hope the Green wins as the Green Party is the only party that is truly in favor of locally oriented commerce (David’s ridiculously un-educated comment notwithstanding).
1) I think the top two go to the November election no matter what.
2) Nagin is identifying himself as a Democrat, despite still writing for the CPUSA paper
Wow The Green Party must be a real threat. We’re getting Red Baited.
Mr Anon @ 4 – Nagin probably is a Democrat, since the line of the Communist Party for some years has been to support the Democrats to prevent the Republicans from winning.
@ #6
In some ways, it’s been their line since 1936. But they only stopped running their own candidates in the 1990s.
To clarify, I have been a member of the Green Party of Ohio since 2000 having served as Co-Convener for the Central Ohio Greens in 2000-2001 as well as a member of the State Central Committee for the same period. I am also a member of the Democratic Party and have participated in Cleveland city council’s Democratic Caucus throughout my first term that is ending this year.
Although as candidates, Rick Nagin and I may share some similar overarching interests and perspectives, our respective party platforms and personal viewpoints have stark differences.
My life experiences include growing up working in a small family business; studying and working in the fields of banking and development project financing; working for nine years within the Micro-Enterprise and Small-Business Programs in the Peace Corps (Dominican Republic, Latvia, Russia Far East and Moldova); working as an Executive Director for a local development Corporation in Cleveland as well as a Publisher/Editor of a local community newspaper.
I’ve pursued interests and been involved in sustainability initiatives and smart growth, urban planning since returning to the U.S. in 1999. This includes being involved in reviewing energy, transportation, community development and public services management and policy on Cleveland City Council’s Utilities, Community & Economic development and Public Services committees.
For more information see the following links:
http://briancummins.us
http://www.ohiogreens.org
http://cleveland.com/cityhall
http://realneo.us/
Sincerely,
Brian Cummins
Councilman, Ward 15, Cleveland City Council
Candidate, Ward 14
info@briancummins.us
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